Property owners along Prospect Street lost their homes to eminent domain in 1960, in order to reconfigure and enlarge Route 9 through the City of Poughkeepsie.

Written by

Anthony P. Musso
| For the Poughkeepsie Journal

In 1960, in order to reconfigure and enlarge Route 9 through the City of Poughkeepsie, property owners along Prospect Street, west of then-Vassar Brothers Hospital, lost their homes to eminent domain. The same process would repeat itself several years later for an east-west arterial project through the city.

Vincent Heffernan was 9 when his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were forced to vacate their Prospect Street properties, some of which became part of the new thoroughfare.

Route 9 originally approached the city from the south, passing in front of the Poughkeepsie Rural ...